Ghana's mental health patients confined to prayer camps

摘要

Nestled in a verdant valley just outside of the small town of Mamfe, in Eastern Ghana, is Mount Horeb Prayer Centre. Established by the self-proclaimed prophet, Paul Nii Okai, the centre bills itself as a Christian centre of healing-a "deliverance and prophetic ministry".People with ailments both physical and psychological come to Mount Horeb because they have greater faith in God than in doctors, Reverend Betty Okai, the wife of Prophet Okai, tells The Lancet. "They believe that the power of God can work more than medicine."Of the hundreds of people that have come to the camp over the past 20 years for healing from physical and psychological ailments "just a few cases" have not been healed, she claims. Treatment for patients includes Bible reading, prayer, and voluntary fasting, according to Okai. "We pray in the healing name and blood of Jesus."